


Inscrutable

by Piggie50



Series: Arthur is Not an Artist, Merlin, Surprisingly, Is [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Art School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-27
Updated: 2014-07-27
Packaged: 2018-02-10 17:18:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2033391
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Piggie50/pseuds/Piggie50
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin doesn’t know how fate paired him up with Arthur for an art project, but he’s beginning to think the Universe isn’t such a horrible person after all.<br/>Or, the art class that started it all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Inscrutable

**Author's Note:**

> Ok...hope you like!!

Merlin has a feeling that today is going to be one of those days when he walks into the art classroom, five minutes late.

The teacher, Alice, she told them to call her, doesn’t seem to mind his lateness, in fact, she looks delighted to see him there at all.

She’s sitting at her desk, finishing up a game of solitaire when Merlin gets there, toting his messenger bag with him, a half finished cup of coffee perched precariously in his hand.

He woke up late and had had to run for his morning Starbucks cup of coffee, keeping up his theme of hobo hipster for the week.

By the time he sits down Alice has stood up, her hippy bangles dangling together and chiming all around the classroom, snapping people out of their reverie.

Looking around, Merlin can tell that no one wants to be here at eight in the morning, talking about artists long dead, and their work which is enforced upon beginning artists everywhere.

Morgana is sitting in the back of the room, painting her nails a horrendous shade of green that the teacher will probably compliment on; Gwen at her side drawing little hearts and flowers in her notebook while trying to look like she’s paying attention.

Gwen’s brother, Elyan, is busy staring out of the window, probably wishing that he was anywhere else other than here. Lance is at his side, flipping the cover of his text book open again and again.

Gwaine is no where to be seen, his absence the same as it is every…well, other day. Mordred is glaring daggers at the teacher from his spot by the wall, feet propped up in the chair next to his own.

Their class is small, but there’s still one person missing, one person that struts in the minute Alice pulls out the roster to take roll.

Arthur Pendragon.

Uther Pendragon, the head and creator of Pendragon Institute’s son. The golden boy, literally and figuratively, of the entire college.

He smiles with a crocodile sort of sweetness at Alice as he strolls by, tossing himself into his usual seat near the front.

Merlin looks away from him quickly, telling himself to just get through the class with half a caffeinated mind…it almost works too.

Alice takes roll quickly, checking Gwaine present regardless of his obvious absence, then, she claps her hands together.

“Today,” she says cheerfully, “we will all be starting a new project. I will be splitting you up into groups of two and have you complete a painting.” She ignores the collective groans from the class, “you will combine your skills,” she continues, “to paint something wonderful!” She looks far to pleased with this idea, and proceeds to call out the groups.

Morgana is paired up with Mordred, who is the only one in the class that he can stand; Lance grouped with Gwen, her brother glaring at his band mate when this is announced.

Elyan is forced to be Gwaine’s partner, ensuring that he will have to do all of the work himself, and that means that Merlin is left with Arthur.

Bloody Hell.

Alice spreads her arms wide and blesses their progression, leaving them to it in lieu of playing another game on her computer.

Everyone takes their time getting to their partners, Merlin chugging down the rest of his coffee quickly, willing it to rush to his brain before Arthur gets to him.

The blonde sits next to him much too soon for the caffeine to take effect, but that doesn’t matter. No matter what, his brain would still short circuit regardless of power or not.

“I’m warning you now,” Arthur says slowly, glancing at him, “I can’t draw anything other than animals and weapons, let alone paint them.”

Merlin blinks, not expecting that, “right…” he says, just as slowly, “well…I can paint landscapes…so we can just add, like, a flaming sword killing a dragon or something.”

That startles a laugh out of Arthur who stares at him incredulously, “I don’t think that’s what she has in mind.”

Merlin smiled ruefully, shrugging, “at this point, I think anything would be good enough for her.”

Arthur nods at him, mutually agreeing, then scoots closer, “alright, so, random mythological creatures mixed with Monet’s garden. Sounds good.”

Merlin snorts at him, crossing his arms, “oh please, I’m so much better than Monet. His stuff is absolute crap up close, mine is not.”

Arthur raises a brow at him, “’absolute crap,’ huh? So, kind of like Morgana’s hair today?”

Merlin glances back at her, noting the strands sticking up in a curling mass from her ponytail, and he has to hold in his laugh, “yeah,” he says when he turns back around, “kind of.”

Arthur stares at him, a smile tugging at his lips, then looks away before Merlin can say anything, “well,” the blonde says, getting up to grab some art supplies, “let’s get started.”

Merlin decides that even though Alice used to date his godfather Gaius, and was dumped by him, she doesn’t hold Merlin responsible for it, and he silently thanks her for her strange methods of picking art partners…

He and Arthur are a surprisingly good team.

Merlin works on the background of their painting, a beautiful field full of green strands of grass that parts way for a huge castle. 

Arthur works on the magical animals they’ll have around the medieval architecture; a griffin, dragon, and unicorn (since Merlin thinks no scene is complete without a unicorn) which will pop out from the painting by way of paper springs that Arthur will also make.

They talk about other things while they’re working: classes, music, people they both know.

Arthur is friends with Leon, from the band Camelot, and Merlin is friends with everyone else from the band.

They snicker over everyone else’s work, and how Gwaine has only decided to show up one day the whole week, drunk as can be, laughing over everything as he trips over tables, knocking glitter all over himself.

Gwaine comes to sit by Merlin instead of his art partner, hugging all over the black haired male as he tries to paint.

Arthur looks a little unnerved by this, and Merlin tries to reassure him that Gwaine is one of his best friend’s, not some weird overly friendly drunk how always seems to seek him out. Arthur doesn’t seem convinced.

By the end of the week though, Arthur and Merlin have progressed in their project, and in their astonishing friendship.

On Friday, Alice says that all work must be halted immediately, and that the projects are to be turned in right then.

Some of the groups aren’t even done yet, and Morgana says a few curse words that make Merlin have to hold back a smile and a snicker.

Alice takes up all of the work and hangs them in the front of the room, on the corkboard where she places most of their finished works.

“I would like you all to have a look, and write a few comments about each project within your own groups. Then, I will give the comments to the creators to let them decide what they should do with the critiques.”

Merlin frowns, and Arthur glances back at him, the same look on his face, which makes Merlin laugh behind his hand.

They take turns looking at each of the projects after that, Alice going back to her desk to finish her strawberry smoothie.

Lance and Gwen have a strange mixture of colorful flowers with flames in the background, consuming the edges of the petals.

“The beauty of the world will be consumed in the fires of industry?” Merlin writes on his rubric, prompting Arthur to scribble, “watch out Shire!,” beneath it.

Elyan had made a city made of swords on his own, and Arthur murmured a sound of happy acknowledgment at it.

“Awesome~!” Arthur wrote down with a flourish, though Merlin grabbed the sheet back to ask, “where are the doors to the buildings?”

Morgana and Mordred’s painting was simply a mix of reds and blacks.

“Fire and Blood?” Merlin wrote down, making Arthur bit his lip in laughter and simply draw a picture of a small fire-breathing dragon.

After they finished, everyone handed in their rubrics to Alice who nodded vaguely at them with a sage-like wisdom.

After she drew a smiley face on each of the papers Alice handed them back out, making Merlin and Arthur huddle close together to read what the others had said of their painting.

“What the hell is this?” Morgana’s spidery handwriting asked, while Mordred’s bold script simply said, “we’re not in preschool Pendragon.” As though Arthur alone had done it.

“The background is very well done,” Gwen’s loopy writing addressed, a small flower drawn in the corner of she and Lance’s shared block. “Nice.” The other set of writing simply said, an ‘L’ beside it.

“Could I have that dragon?” Elyan asked, a sword underlining his name.

Arthur laughed over the comments, pushing them towards Merlin when he was finished, “why do we even try in this class?”

Merlin smiled back at him, “I honestly have no idea.”

They were dismissed after that, most people having angry looks on their faces; Elyan crumpling the papers as soon as he was down the aisle leading from his seat. Mordred procured a red marker from the bin and drew a huge ‘X’ on each of the papers. Lance merely flipped a lock of hair back from his eyes as he left the room, leaving Morgana to escort Gwen out, her arm around the shorter girl’s shoulders.

Merlin hurried to gather up his supplies, stuffing them into his bag, barely noticing when Arthur stopped his own packing to stare at him.

Finally, Merlin couldn’t take it anymore. He paused and looked up at the other boy, “what?”

Arthur glanced away from him, “I was just…I was wondering. Do you want to grab a beer somewhere tomorrow night.? Camelot’s playing then, and I need someone half-decent to go see them with.”

Merlin grinned to himself, thinking that perhaps this was Arthur’s weird way or asking people out. “Alright,” he said, making Arthur look back at him in surprise.

“Really?” The blonde’s blue eyes were wide, and Merlin could almost feel himself falling for those eyes.

Merlin nodded at him, a dopey grin still on his face, unable to stop it. 

But, then again, he didn’t really want to…


End file.
